Shutterstock
When and where the ceramic cats began to be sold remains a mystery, but by the late Edo period they found appeal with urban consumers.
Rainbow ears, but is Japan’s parliament listening?
Lucas Calloch/@dreiimos/Unsplash
Japan has a rich queer history and is seeing societal changes in favor of greater LGBTQ recognition. That said, national politicians have yet to catch up.
Album/Alamy
The late writer never shied away from hard topics, breaking down walls of silence around topics like disability and rurality in post-war Japan.
Auad/Alamy
An uncompromising writer who wrote about the dark and light of postwar Japan
Pikachu as depicted in Pokemon Master Journeys (2021).
The Pokémon Company
Ash Ketchum is retiring from the Pokémon franchise, but this doesn’t spell the end of Pikachu.
Marco Montalti/Shutterstock
A break or moment of failure can be an opportunity to create something new and beautiful.
Monsters and spirits –including ‘tsukumogami,’ which are made of everyday objects – in the ‘Hyakki-Yagyō-Emaki’ scroll, painted between the 14th and 16th centuries.
Wikimedia Commons
Shinto and Buddhist ideas about interconnectedness have deeply influenced Japan, shaping centuries-old rituals and stories whose impact continues today.
Caroline Blumberg/EPA
The pioneering Japanese designer leaves behind a legacy of innovative fashion design.
AP Photo/Remy de la Mauviniere
Issey Miyake’s clothing is both theatrical and practical. The Japanese designer has died aged 84.
The ‘bad’ Yakuza boss, Tozawa in the series Tokyo Vice.
James Lisle/HBO Max
The show is an accurate representation of how the yakuza see themselves and their culture.
Franzi/Shutterstock
Wellbeing is not just an individual thing, it plays out in relationships with people and animals and even plants and our environment.
Photo courtesy of Katsura Niyō
Only 7% of rakugo artists are female, but Katsura Niyō just won one of Japan’s highest honours for emerging rakugo artists.
‘Underdog’: Takaichi Sanae has announced her bid for the presidency of the LDP, which could land her the prime ministership.
EPA-EFE/ Kimimasa Mayama
Japan has a very poor record on promoting gender equality – and it’s political system is no exception.
Male-dominated: Japan’s royal family greet well-wishers for the new year in 2020.
EPA-EFE/ Franck Robichon
There have been eight women who ruled as empress, but Japanese culture has always prioritised maleness.
Blue Sky imagery/Shutterstock
Eagerly anticipated every year, the sakura season in Japan is a time to appreciate change.
Nito Souji
Seeking isolation can lead to creativity and a deeper understanding of oneself, as these artworks show.
A frugal and ascetic life: a shrine to the hermit Rishu Sennin.
Alon Adika via Shutterstock
Medieval Japanese poets and philosophers sought different ways of dealing with disasters and tragedies.
Screengrab/MTV via YouTube
The tradition of performing in a mask, from china to France, shows how it can be just as evocative and entertaining.
Totes Adorbs ❤ Hurricane is ‘a euphoric spectacle amid pop-culture icons and idols’.
OzAsia
A reliance on visual elements to create the world of performance in Japan traces back hundreds of years through kabuki dance-drama. Two new shows keep that tradition alive.
Utagawa Kuniyoshi’s Mitsukuni defies the skeleton spectre.
conjured up by Princess Takiyasha
(1845–46)
Art Gallery of NSW
A new exhibition surveys the haunting Japanese traditions and beliefs that connect the supernatural with the everyday.